At least twelve special courts to be constituted to adjudicate ‘cases against lawmakers’
The Supreme Court of India has approved the center government’s plan to constitute nearly twelve special courts to exclusively adjudicate the serious criminal cases pending against the parliament members and legislative members.
The court has also directed the concerned to allocate a sum of over seven crore rupees to implement the ambitious project.
According to the date collected during the 2014 general election, at least one thousand five hundred and eighty one cases are pending against the parliamentarians.
It is clear that the total cases pending against the lawmakers -both the parliament members and legislative assembly members- will be several folds higher than the aforementioned figure.
The element, which has helped the SC bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha to take such a historic decision, is a petition, filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, seeking a ban on convicted politicians from contesting in elections and from holding public offices.
It seems that the petitioner is not happy with what the court has directed. Expressing his disagreement openly, the petitioner has argued that the number of courts and the sum allotted are not enough.
Anyway, the court has dismissed the argument, saying that the project, which is at present in a primitive stage, has the potential to undergo modifications.
However, the court has directed the concerned to implement the project before the beginning of March next year.
It has been informed that on March 7, 2018, the court may review the developments of the project and may hear the prime content of the petition when it will meet for the next hearing.
Vignesh. S. G
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